There's a hole in my house, dear Liza, dear Liza
The trouble with home improvements is that in order for things to get better, they first have to get worse. A lot worse. Our house needed painting last year. It went from looking like it needed painting, to looking like someone had eaten half the paint off, to primer grey. For a month we lived in a grey house because the weather wouldn't co-operate. Finally it was all painted and detailed and beautiful.
Right now there are horrible sounds of destruction coming from the dining room where two men are ripping out the main window. Soon there will be a gaping hole in the front of the house. By the end of the day, there will be a shiny new window in place that will have two panes of special glass in each section, as opposed to one standard pane, and an opening mechanism that doesn't require punting a rock through the glass. But it's going to get messy and loud before we get there. The cats are shut up in the bedroom, they don't like home improvements either. At least the weather is good today.
10:00 AM
There's a hole in the house. Glass has gone, you could crawl in through the gap. Cats have ceased in their attempts to tunnel out of the bedroom through the carpet. Crunching sounds of broken wood are not conducive to calm. Neither are nail guns. Hubby called and requested photo-documentary of install process.
11:10 AM
New window swinging in the hole, waiting to be attached. One cat hiding under the bed, one on the bed under the covers. Small pile of window wreckage at the bottom of the front yard. Sounds of electric screwdrivers and quiet conversation have replaced nail gun, and the dry scent of fresh cut wood.
12:20 PM
New window being fitted into the hole. Only the central panel is in place, the other two are the opening panels. Maybe they'll break for lunch soon. We will have work to do once it's done, painting the wood and finishing the walls. How do you keep a cat off their favourite window seat when it's covered in wet paint? No sign of the window roof yet. Circular saw has started.
4:15 PM
All over now. Window installed inside and out.